Scandal
by KennyEchelon
Summary: Between episodes 7 and 8. Yuri has a Skype interview the day after the China Cup. It doesn't go to plan. Victuuri one-shot.


Even though Yuri had been the one competing, he awoke before Victor. He was too restless, too eager to get back on the ice. He fixed himself a coffee and opened his laptop, quickly checking the schedule in his email inbox. Most business emails came through Victor, but knowing how forgetful his coach was, Yuri had forced him to forward any important information to his account. He doubted that he'd even read half of them.

Victor had sent him a message saying he'd already agreed that Yuri could do a Skype interview with a Tokyo-based skating website later that morning. He groaned; not only was it short notice but they wanted him alone. Interviews without Victor made him nervous. He wasn't sure what to say and the little prep time he had wasn't going to help. The call would be recorded and uploaded to the website later on in the evening.

His plan to fit in an hour of practice before Victor woke up went out of the window, knowing that by the time he got to the rink and got ready, he'd be too concerned about getting back for his appointment.

He decided that even if he couldn't skate, his morning would still be productive. So he downed the rest of his coffee, stuck his headphones in his ears and started to stretch. His muscles screamed from the exertion of the last few days but he knew that if he didn't push through the pain, they'd stiffen up even more. After a half an hour workout, he played his programme music and marked through the choreography as best he could in a tiny AirBnB apartment.

Victor had rented it for a week, and it wasn't exactly the most spacious accommodation ever. One bedroom, one bathroom and the kitchen and living areas merged into one, Yuri doubted they'd be able to cope if they were staying longer. He'd offered to take the sofa but Victor refused, saying that the double bed was enough for the two of them. And that would have been fine… if Victor didn't steal the covers in the middle of the night. At least the apartment had WiFi.

Yuri had gone through all of his routines several times, and he was just finishing rehearsing 'Yuri on Ice' when his coach finally surfaced. Bleary eyed, Victor stuck his head out of the bedroom door.

"Are you practicing? You're going to push yourself too hard, you know."

Yuri hurriedly stopped what he was doing.

"Victor! I… I just want to do my best."

"And you will, but not if you don't rest. You're taking the rest of the day off, got it?"

Walking over to him, Yuri took off his jacket and tied it around his waist. "Okay, I'm gonna take a shower, but have an interview later, remember? Gonna try and call my sister after that's done because she was looking after the onsen when I called my parents last night."

"Alright, I'll take a bath while you're having the interview, then we can go explore the city."

A shower and a change of clothes later, Yuri balanced his laptop on the coffee table and sat cross-legged on the floor. Victor had gone into the bathroom to wash himself and enjoy his bath while Yuri accepted his contact request and waited for the call. After 10 minutes of awkward silence, a message appeared on the screen saying that the interviewer was having connection issues so it'd be delayed by a few more minutes while they were resolved. Thankfully it wasn't a live broadcast but it was still frustrating. Nerves were building and the wait wasn't helping.

Less than five minutes later, and the Skype tone starts ringing. He clicked on the video button and after a brief lag; the interviewer's face appeared onscreen.

"And we're here with Katsuki Yuri… congrats on moving to the next round of qualifying!"

"Thank you very much. It's an honour to represent Japan."

The conversation carried on for a good twenty minutes, the interviewer obviously restraining herself from talking about the surprise at the end of the Free Skate. Yuri was super-focused on the webcam, having listened to Yakov lecture him about making 'eye contact' with the audience.

The bathroom door opened silently behind him, and he was completely unaware. Victor Nikiforov stepped out, dressed in only a towel, and quietly walked across to the kitchen. He retrieved a bottle of water from the fridge and went back to the bedroom. The interviewer held in a gasp as Yuri carried on answering her question as if nothing had just happened.

She put on a poker face, trying to remain professional, but she wasn't able to stop the blush creep onto her cheeks.

"So, I have to ask, how would you say your relationship with Nikiforov-san developed since he became your coach?"

"Oh, it's never been better, we're still in our first year so it's early days but I definitely think we've become a good team and I'm going to do my best to make him proud in Russia…"

"Thank you for speaking to us today, this is TokyoIce dot co dot jp"

The call ended and Yuri checked to see if his sister was on Skype, but she must've been busy again because her icon was white instead of green.

He stood up and walked around in a couple of circles – he'd been sat down for so long he'd lost pretty much all the feeling in his butt. He picked up his phone and headed into the bedroom, checking the internet for nearby restaurants.

"Hey Victor, where do you want to go for dinner toni-"

He looked up from his screen and the end of his sentence was cut short. Yuri's chest squeezed painfully, forcing him to catch his breath for a split second. Victor hadn't changed out of his towel, and he was reclining back on the bed in a manner that had made it come undone, only just covering the parts that mattered. No matter how many times Yuri saw him naked, he wasn't sure he'd ever be fully used to it.

Victor looked up from the book he was reading and smiled warmly. Without a word, he set it down on the bedside table as Yuri lay down on the bed next to him. Victor put one arm around his shoulder, pulling him closer.

"I found a donburi restaurant about 15 minutes away on the subway, my treat."

"Really?" Yuri's eyes lit up.

Feeling brave, he reached up and placed a gentle kiss on the curve of Victor's jawline. Victor responded by turning his head, making direct eye contact. His icy-blue eyes pierced Yuri's gaze and he smiled gently. His protégé was constantly surprising him and he couldn't even try to deny that it was thrilling. Victor cradled Yuri's head with one hand, absent-mindedly running his thumb along his cheek.

All of a sudden, their lips met and Victor kissed Yuri with spontaneous desperation. Yuri could feel him pressed against him, altogether aware of their shared body heat. And Victor melted, relaxing into the kiss. There was no rush, no need to hurry. In that moment, they were Victor and Yuri, not Nikiforov and Katsuki. There was no pressure, no expectations, just… them.

They pulled away before resting their foreheads against each other. They lay there for a while, legs intertwined and eyes closed, just taking a few minutes to enjoy the quiet together.

Quarter of an hour later, and Yuri got up to carry on packing their belongings ready for their flight to Russia the next morning. Victor stripped off his towel and changed into tight black trousers and a burgundy turtleneck, quickly running a hand through his hair to add some volume.

They had a large suitcase for their everyday things and a medium-sized suitcase just for Yuri's skating equipment. The smaller bag had been finished the night before, so all he had to do was pack what clothes they didn't need. It didn't take long, and once he was done they left for some last minute sightseeing.

Victor probably took way too many photos, saving them on his phone to spam Instagram once they were out of China. He dragged Yuri along with him, pulling him by his coat sleeve like an over-excited puppy.

"Yuri, let's take a selfie together!"

Victor held his phone out and Yuri shuffled closer to get in the shot, sticking his fingers up in a peace sign. Victor put one arm around Yuri and pressed their cheeks together, giving the camera a big open-mouthed grin. With a push of the button, the photo was taken.

They'd been walking for hours and it was time to head to dinner, so they found the nearest subway station and figured out which line to get on. A while later they arrived at the right stop, which was about three minutes away from the restaurant.

When they got there, Victor used some extremely broken Chinese to ask for a table for two and they were seated by the window.

"That was impressive" said Yuri.

Victor scratched the back of his head, laughing awkwardly. "I bought myself a Mandarin phrasebook before my first trip to China. I'm _hardly_ fluent."

"But you're trying, that counts for something. You can't be perfect at everything."

This was the first time they'd been out for dinner that competition; they'd chosen to cook in the apartment so Yuri could focus. Thankfully, one of the perks of going to a Japanese restaurant was that Yuri could use his own language with the staff, so he was the one to order two portions of katsudon. One for him and one for Victor.

Neither man felt like drinking because of their early flight, so they toasted with water instead.

"To you, Yuri, for pushing yourself to new limits"

"And to you, for pushing me first"

"Kanpai!" they said simultaneously.

Their food arrived, and Yuri's eyes sparkled at the sight of his favourite meal. He knew it wouldn't be _as_ good as his mother's katsudon, but it'd still be pretty damn good. With a hurried but heartfelt 'itadakimasu', he took a giant mouthful of food.

They were about a third of the way through their bowls when Yuri's phone vibrated in his pocket. The hand that wasn't occupied with chopsticks retrieved it from his jeans and he checked the screen.

Phichit had sent him a message.

Yuri quickly read it, his eyes distracted by the punctuating emoticon.

" _you should probably check goldenskate – fan fests forum ;)"_

While he usually avoided online forums after a particularly painful thread discussing his performance last year, if Phichit was telling him to look it must be important. And he certainly had a sinking feeling about the winky face at the end.

Oblivious to what had happened earlier, he loaded up the webpage on his cellphone as fast as he could, still anxiously shoving rice into his mouth.

The two most recently updated threads were Yuri's and Victor's, with Victor's edging out Yuri's by a few thousand views. He clicked on the top URL, and it redirected him to the page. Yuri skipped to the last few posts, knowing that whatever Phichit had spotted would be in the most recent section of the thread.

Within the next split second, he started choking on his katsudon.

"Yuri, what's wrong?" Victor said, concerned.

Yuri swallowed with some difficulty. "L-look."

As soon as he'd seen the screen, Victor's eyes widened.

"I thought you were talking to your sister…"

"She wasn't online…"

"So that was your interview?"

"Yeah… I didn't even notice"

"Yuri, I'm so sorry, that was unprofessional behaviour as your coach."

Victor looked honestly guilty. He'd never had a problem with showing a bit of skin, and Instagram had seen pretty much everything before, but this was different. It was a proper interview and whatever he did reflected on Yuri too.

Yuri took time to breathe, washing his food down with a gulp of water.

"I forgive you"

"But people will-"

"Let them" Yuri interrupted "I'm the one who gets you all to myself. Why should I care what others think?"

Victor's cheeks flushed slightly, and he rested his chin on one hand. Because Yuri was easy to embarrass, the moments when he showed no shame at all were all the better, and it excited Victor more than he'd actually admit.

"Are you sure?"

Yuri nodded.

"I swear I'll be a better coach from now on" Victor replied.

"As I said before, you're trying and that counts for something. You can't be perfect at everything. Not even you."


End file.
